Hi - this is Srinivasan Sampathkumar from Triplicane. I have a passion for Marine Insurance, Cricket and of course Temples especially Thiruvallikkeni.
From Sept 2009, I am posting my thoughts in this blog ; From July 2010, my postings on Temples & Tamil are on my other blog titled "Kairavini Karayinile " (www.tamil.sampspeak.in)
Request you to keep providing your feedback which will help me improve and present better.

Thursday, October 29, 2015

People power comes to the fore in every election ~ and
this death-knell to Communism is like never before !

Lech Wałęsa is a
Polish politician and trade-union
activist. He co-founded Solidarity, the
Soviet bloc's first independent trade union, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1983,
and served as President of Poland from 1990 to 1995. Poland is in Central Europe, bordered by Germany, Czech Republic, Slovakia,
Ukraine, Belarus, Baltic Sea, Kaliningrad Oblast (a Russian exclave) and
Lithuania. The total area of Poland is
312,679 square kilometres making it the 71st largest country in the world and the 9th
largest in Europe. The establishment of
a Polish state dates back to 966. Its territory was partitioned among Prussia,
the Russian Empire, and Austria. Poland regained its independence (as the
Second Polish Republic) at the end of World War I, in 1918.

Communism
in Poland can trace its origins to early 20th century. During the interwar
period in the Second Polish Republic, some Polish communists formed a party,
the Communist Party of Poland; however, most of its original members and leaders perished during Joseph
Stalin's Great Purge. In 1943, Stalin made efforts to rebuild the Polish
communist party, creating the Union of
Polish Patriots, to become an agent to aid the legitimization of a puppet state
he planned to set up in war-ridden Poland. In recent years, Communism has really
waned.

The parliament of
Poland consists of an upper house – the Senate – and a lower house, the Sejm. The
parliament is without an official name;
Poland's constitution refers only to the Sejm and the Senate. Members of both
houses are elected by popular elections, usually held every four years. Parliamentary elections to both the Sejm and
Senate were held in Poland on 25 October 2015. It was the first European
election since the Norwegian parliamentary election, 1993 in which the two
largest parties fielded a female candidate as leader. Official results, announced on 27 October,
gave the conservative Law and Justice Party a thin majority, with 235 of 460 seats
(51 percent).

Now
Daily Mail and other media reports that ‘ the new Polish parliament has no left
wing’ !!!

It is reported that
the weekend election won by Poland's right-wing and anti-migrant Law and
Justice party has also created Europe's most right-wing parliament — one without
a single party that is left of centre on social issues. Gone are all of the
former communists for the first time since communism fell 26 years ago, as well
as a younger generation of politicians focused on women's rights, gay rights
and the environment.

The 2011 election
brought in a transsexual lawmaker, Anna Grodzka, who seemed a striking symbol
of how the country was growing more open and progressive. Grodzka will be
absent from the new parliament while some far-right nationalists will be among
the newcomers. In many ways, Poland has long been deeply conservative: abortion
laws are strict, the country resists green energy and refugees are largely
unwelcome. Still, there has been a growing acceptance among some for gay rights
as Poland comes under greater Western influence.

The expulsion of
the left results from several factors: a deeper social shift and the
unpopularity of some of the left's leaders, including Leszek Miller, a former
communist. Left-wing parties took a combined 11 percent of the vote, split
between two electoral groups which each fell short of a threshold for getting
into the lower house of parliament, the Sejm.

Many commentators,
even some sympathetic to left-wing causes, said ex PM Miller and another
left-wing leader, Janusz Palikot, deserved to be defeated for infighting and
other failures. "Haughtiness, mutual elimination through propaganda, a
lack of ideology patched up with cynicism, Miller's playing on nostalgia for
communist Poland, and Palikot's playing on his own ego, all this has washed
away a conviction in Poles that the left wing is useful," columnist Marek
Beylin wrote in Wednesday's Gazeta Wyborcza daily.

Younger Poles on
the left not tied to the communists are also upset by the setback. Despite its
moral conservatism, Law and Justice is left-wing on economic causes, promising
to help the disadvantaged and use the state to even out economic inequalities.
The party promises to lower the retirement age, give cash bonuses for children
and free medication to people over 75. It says it will fund these social
programs with higher taxes on banks and big supermarkets, most of which are
foreign-owned. Modern, a new party led by economist Ryszard Petru, also
supports civic partnerships for gay and straight couples, though it is mainly
focused on economic issues. It got 28 seats.

A
trademark is a recognizable sign, design or expression which identifies
products or services of a particular source from those of others. A trademark may be located on a package, a
label, a voucher or on the product itself. Intellectual property (IP) is a
legal term that refers to creations of the mind. Examples of intellectual
property include music, literature, and other artistic works; discoveries and
inventions; and words, phrases, symbols, and designs. Under intellectual
property laws, owners of intellectual property are granted certain exclusive
rights.

Biographer Kristine
Larsen writes about how this man faced isolation and unhappiness during his
first year or so at Oxford. Yet he joined the rowing team. Even before being
diagnosed with a physically disabling illness, this person didn't have what one would call a large or
athletic build. However, row teams recruited smaller men to be coxswains -- a
position that does not row, but rather controls steering and stroke rate. Because
rowing was so important and competitive at Oxford, his role on the team made him very popular. As a graduate student, he gradually started
showing symptoms of tripping and general clumsiness. His family became
concerned when he was home during his Christmas break from school and they
insisted he see a doctor. He turned 21 a
week later, and shortly after he entered the hospital for two weeks of tests to
discover what was wrong with him. He was then diagnosed with Amyotrophic
lateral sclerosis (ALS),also known as Lou Gehrig's disease and
Charcot disease, is a specific disorder that involves the death of
neurons.

The problems worsened,
and his speech became slightly slurred; the diagnosis of motor neurone
disease came when he was 21, in 1963; at
that time, doctors gave him a life expectancy of two years. In the
late 1960s, his physical abilities declined: he began to use crutches
and ceased lecturing regularly. As he slowly lost the ability to write,
he developed compensatory visual methods, including seeing equations in terms
of geometry. His increased manifold sufferings make a very sad reading.

The man of the post is ‘British physicist
Stephen Hawking’ – since 1997, his computer-based
communication system is sponsored and provided by Intel® Corporation. A tablet
computer mounted on the arm of wheelchair is powered by wheelchair batteries,
although the tablets internal battery will keep the computer running if
necessary. His interface to the computer
is through a program called EZ Keys, written by Words Plus Inc. This provides a
software keyboard on the screen. A cursor automatically scans across this
keyboard by row or by column. He selects a character by moving his cheek to stop the cursor. His cheek movement is detected by an infrared
switch that is mounted on spectacles. This switch is his only interface with the computer. Through EZ Keys he also controls the mouse in
Windows. He checks his my email using
the Eudora email client, surf the internet using Firefox and writes lectures
using Notepad. His latest computer from Intel, based on an Intel®
Core™ i7 Processor and Intel® Solid-State Drive 520 Series, also contains a
webcam which with Skype keeps him in touch with web world.

The news is “Professor Hawking, 73, has applied to the Intellectual
Property Office to have his name formally registered”…. His primary aim is to prevent others from
exploiting his name with inappropriate products. He is not the first though, celebrities like J.K. Rowling and David
Beckham, have had their names turned into
brands. “It’s a personal matter for
Stephen Hawking; it is not a university issue, but he has taken measures to
protect his name and the success it has brought,” said a spokesman for
Cambridge University, where he is Director of Research at the Department of
Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics. He has also applied to get his
name trademarked for charitable purposes, giving him the option of setting up a
foundation, such as one to promote physics or for research into motor neurone
disease, which has left him paralysed, The Sunday Times reported. His trademark
would cover computer games, powered wheelchairs, greetings cards and health
care.

Chris McLeod,
president of the Institute of Trademark Attorneys, said the move could be worth
millions of pounds. “It depends on how successfully his advisers can license
and market products and services. If he were to die, then the trademarks could
be transferred to his foundation or offspring — they could be a never-ending
monopoly,” he said.

There is a wide
range of Professor Hawking memorabilia available on the internet, including a
thong with his quote 'while there may be primitive life in our region of the
galaxy, there don't seem to be any advanced intelligent beings', inked on the
front. There is also a pair of boxer shorts, available for £8, with a cartoon
sketch of the scientist on and T shirts featuring a zombie Professor Hawking
above the words 'Hawking Dead'.

Another famous
British scientist Brian Cox had also filed for trademarking his name as fully
fledged brand, Brian Edward Cox,
47, is an English physicist, and
professor of particle physics in the School of Physics and Astronomy at the
University of Manchester in the UK. He is best known to the public as the
presenter of science programmes. Before his academic career, Cox was a keyboard
player for the bands D:Ream and Dare.

‘George's
Secret Key to the Universe’ is a children’s book written by Lucy and Stephen
Hawking in 2007. The main characters in the book are George,
Eric, Annie, Dr. Reeper, and Cosmos, the world's most powerful computer.

Tuesday, October 27, 2015

The Olympic Games
need no introduction… the game held once in four years attracts thousands of
athletes. There are the Summer and
Winter Olympics – the 22nd Winter Olympics, was held in Sochi, Russia. In 2016, will be the Summer Olympics.

Russian star pole
vaulter Yelena Isinbayeva said that she plans to retire after the Olympic Games
in Rio de Janeiro, where she has her sights sets on a third Olympic gold.
"If everything goes as planned, I will be in a new role next year,"
Isinbayeva told journalists at a meeting of the world's Olympic associations in
Moscow. "I won't say in which role for the time being." The 33-year-old Olympian had announced her
retirement after winning the 2013 IAAF world championships in Moscow to give
birth to her daughter. But the three-time Olympic medallist later announced she
would come out of retirement if she had a chance at winning gold in Rio.

The 2016 Summer
Olympics officially - Games of the XXXI Olympiad, are the
thirty-first Summer Olympic Games, the world's largest international
multi-sport event that is held every four years. It will be held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The selection of the host was announced at
the 121st IOC Session held in
Copenhagen, Denmark, in 2009. Rio will
become the first South American city to host the Summer Olympics, the second
city in Latin America to host the event after Mexico City in 1968, and the
first since 2000 to be held in the Southern Hemisphere.

The games will take
place in August 2016 and more than
10,500 athletes from 206 National Olympic Committees (NOCs) will take part in
this sporting event. The games will feature 28 sports — including rugby sevens
and golf, which were added by the International Olympic Committee in 2009. These sporting events will take place across
33 venues spread across 4 regions of the city namely – Barra, Copacabana,
Deodoro, and Maracanã.

The latest sports
update is that top refugee athletes with no home country to represent will be
allowed to compete at the 2016 Rio Games, the International Olympic Committee
president, Thomas Bach, said on Monday at the United Nations General Assembly. A resolution, which was supported by 180 out
of the 193 UN member states, calls for the Olympic Truce to be respected from
seven days before the start of the 5-21 August Olympic Games until seven days
after the 7-18 September Paralympic Games.

“The Olympic Games
are the time when the values of tolerance, solidarity and peace are brought to
life,” Bach said. “This is the time when the international community comes
together for peaceful competition. “In the Olympic Village we see tolerance and
solidarity in their purest form. Athletes from all 206 National Olympic
Committees live together in harmony and without any kind of discrimination. “At
present none of these athletes would have the chance to participate in the
Olympic Games even if qualified from the sports point of view because, with
their refugee status, they are left without a home country and National Olympic
Committee to represent.

“Having no national
team to belong to, having no flag to march behind, having no national anthem to
be played, these refugee athletes will be welcomed to the Olympic Games with
the Olympic flag and with the Olympic anthem. “They will have a home together
with all the other 11,000 athletes from 206 National Olympic Committees in the
Olympic Village.”

As one could
recall, around 10,700 athletes from 205 National Olympic Committees (NOCs) took
part in the London Olympics. Three
athletes from the Netherlands Antilles Olympic Committee, which the IOC
Executive Committee had ceased to recognise at the IOC session of July 2011,
and one athlete from South Sudan, which has no recognized NOC, participated
independently under the Olympic flag.

Sadly at Sochi
Winter Olympics, Hamara Bharat had the
ignominy of three of its athletes marching without the national flag during the opening
ceremony. With the Indian Olympic Association (IOA)
suspended by the International Olympic Committee(IOC) due to ethical and
administrative reasons, the 3 athletes
participating from India walked behind the IOC flag, as we hung our heads in
shame. The IOA was suspended by the IOC
in December, 2012 due to its failure to comply with the Olympic charter and
that resulted in Indian athletes, including boxers, participating in events
under the flag of world body.

Monday, October 26, 2015

I
have been posting regularly on MRTS aka Parakkum rail events. There exist North, South and Western
lines……….the Southern line runs along GST Road – originates from Chennai Beach
to Tambaram – extending to Chengalpattu / Kanchipuram and Tirumalpur. It is electric trains – commonly Chennai
Suburban Railways, just as there exists MRTS and the brand new Chennai Metro.

Chennai has a
complex railway network. The system uses electrical multiple units (EMUs)
operating on alternating current (AC) drawn from over-head cables through the
catenary system. Trains on Beach–Tambaram section operate at a high
frequency, yet are over-crowded. Web
searches indicate that in 1920s, the British government felt the necessity of
connecting the northern part of the city, which was mainly commercial, with the
chiefly residential south-western parts. In early 1930, the Govt decided to electrify the lines, including the
mainline starting from Egmore.

In Dec
1930, the first consignment of 25
electric carriages from England was received by the railway. The first electrically operated rail service in
Madras began on 2 April 1931 between Madras Beach and Tambaram, which became
the earliest metre gauge to be electrified in the country. In those days, Madras suburban service had 3-car EMUs which were notable in having
coupled bogies across cars, thereby making the entire 3-car formation a rigid
unit.

This line has
transformed the way people of Madras commute and land prices nearer the track
has sky-rocketed over the years. It is
not only about development but also safety. Sadly, many accidents get reported
on this line – though there are manned level-crossings and many overbridges and
foot-bridges having come up over the years.

Today’s Times of
India, Chennai edition carries a grim reminder of the tragic situation. A day after suburban
trains ran over two pedestrians in the city , and three days after four people
died due to train-hits, on Sunday people continued to risk death by crossing
the tracks instead of using the foot overbridge (FOB) at Chromepet railway
station.

Railways
officials are at their wit's end over the continuing deaths on the tracks due
to people crossing the tracks, often while distracted by speaking on their
cellphones or after muting out all sound with music on headphones. Though there
is a foot over-bridge connecting both sides of the station, pedestrians prefer
to cross the tracks rather than take the effort to climb the bridge.

Alex, a school
student, said he doesn't like to walk all the way to the foot overbridge and
then climb up its steps. “I'd rather just take the short cut,“ he said. “I try
to be careful while crossing the tracks.
Vasuki, who is new to Chromepet, says she noticed the over-bridge at the
railway station. “But I don't want to walk all the way just to cross over,” she
said. Other people who cross the tracks say they do not have much of a choice
because the subway that connects GST Road and Radha Nagar has not yet opened. The
corporation, which is building the subway in place of two level crossings near
the station, has faced opposition to the project from residents and shopkeepers
who say it will damage their houses and shops.

Another
railway crossing near the station, which connects GST Road with roads on the
other side of the station, is the route that students of Vaishnav College
usually take. Chromepet station gateman J Manoharan said he blows a whistle
every time a train is going to pass by to alert the pedestrians. “But most
college students don't pay attention as they are using their phones,“ he said. “Several
people don't even look both ways to see is a train is approaching,“ he said. A
lack of railway police squads to monitor safety and prevent people from
crossing the tracks makes the situation worse, he said.

There are
compound walls around Chromepet railway station to prevent pedestrians from
crossing at points other than the railway crossings. “Six months ago, we
distributed a notice to pedestrians, giving them instructions to cross the
railway tracks in a safe manner but they do not pay heed,” a railways official
said. The railway police have conducted
several awareness campaigns at Chromepet and other suburban railway stations
but without much success.

It continues to remain a mystery as to why, people spring forward to
meet disasters ~from simple negligence to utter disregard for lives. Sad to
read the continuing stories of people losing their lives on railway tracks.

This place lies in
the delta of Godavari River; where the river meets its tributary Koringa River
(Coringa River), 9 kilometres from the Bay of Bengal, on the Coromandel coast.

Train journey is
most enjoyable as one can spend time leisurely eating the choicest delicacies
and look through the window the different culture, fields, people and
everything as the train chughs past different areas. Interestingly, Indian Trains have Names
besides the Numbers. As you would know, Trains now have 5 digit numbers –
earlier they were 4 digits. I have
travelled so many times in this particular train no. 7043 [Chennai Central to
Kakinada] – now it is 17643 [Chennai Egmore to Kakinada]

Anything on this
train enthuses me – as I read that Circar Express has been augmented with one AC III Tier Class Coach from
28th June 2015. This train
takes more than the regular time for the 700 km that it traverses. It is scheduled to depart daily from Egmore
at 17.20 hrs and reaches destination – Kakinada Port at 10.10 am the next
day. Interestingly, the Kakinada Port
has shifted a couple of kilometres from its earlier position in 1990s. Also on a recent visit a couple of years ago,
saw a new station at Sarpavaram though Circar did not stop there.

Most
trains are named after Gods, rivers and important places in the origin or
destination – but this one is a bit different
- it is known as Circar Express !
The word ‘Circar’ – noun would mean a District or part of a Province. This
is a common word to old timers as there was the ‘Northern Circar’ - which was a former division of British
India's Madras Presidency, which consisted of a narrow slip of territory lying
along the western side of the Bay of Bengal in the present-day states of Andhra
Pradesh and Orissa. These Northern
Circars were five in number, Chicacole (Srikakulam), Rajahmundry, Ellore
(Eluru), Kondapalli and Guntur. After changing hands frequently between the
Bahamani Sultans, the Mughals, the Nizams of Hyderabad and the French, the
British finally took over. In 1765
Robert Clive obtained from the Mughal
emperor Shah Alam a grant of the five Circars. Thus over the years the
possession of these places and the geographical pattern kept changing. The Northern Circars were governed as part
of Madras Presidency until India's independence in 1947, after which the
presidency became India's Madras state.

Circar Express runs
from Madras to Kakinada. The city of
Kakinada is the HQ of East Godavari Dist and is known as Fertilizer city due to
the presence of big Fertilizer units of NFCL, GFCL etc., It also has names of ‘Pensioner’s paradise’
and old timers were happy in calling it ‘Second Madras’. Kakinada in fact is a planned, neat peaceful
city. There are several edible oil
refineries and the Port has become busy now a days.

Today’s The Hindu
reports that Circar Express would be
extended on completion of track doubling work.
With their aspiration for a direct train service between Kakinada in
Andhra Pradesh and Puducherry set to become a reality, the Telugu-speaking
community in Puducherry celebrating the golden jubilee celebrations of the
Andhra Maha Sabha had another reason to rejoice. Lok Sabha Member of Parliament
R. Radhakrishnan said that with the completion of the track doubling work in
the Chennai to Villupuram section, the route for the Circar Express running
from Egmore in Chennai to Kakinada Port Railway Station will be extended up to Puducherry.

Though
it would increase the time of the winding journey – there is some reason – as
Puducherry has one of its districts miles away – nearer Kakinada. It is Yanam.

Yanam forms a 30
km² enclave, has a population of 32,000, most of whom speak Telugu. For 200
years it was a French colony, and, though united with India in 1954, was called as French Yanam. After implementation of the Sarda Act in British
India in 1929, many Andhraites went to Yanam to conduct child marriages, which
remained legal under the French administration. Elections held on 24 October 1948 and 18
October 1954 are most crucial in the history of French India. In June 1948 the
French and Indian Governments came to an agreement as to how the future of the
French Settlements should be determined.
Those days, Yanam had an extremely dominant pro-French atmosphere
prevailing in its people and its leaders. But in due course of time due to
nationalist struggle by some leaders, conditions became intolerable in Yanam
after its mayor and other representatives of Yanam adopted the merger resolution.

In 1954, there was "Yanaon A Libéré" (Yanam liberated)
- coup d'état of Yanam, that had remained under French control till 13 June
1954, and joined Republic of India by Indian military action. After years of struggle the de facto transfer of the four
enclaves of Pondicherry, Yanam, Mahé, and Karikal to the Indian Union was
achieved. Though a treaty was signed in
1956, the de jure transfer was delayed until the end of the Algerian War. The
treaty was ratified by the French parliament in May 1962. On 16 August 1962 India and France exchanged the instruments of
ratification under which France ceded to India full sovereignty over the
territories it held.

So a
day would dawn when the two distant districts Puducherry and Yanam would be
connected by Circar Express.

In 2012, this photo went viral. The famous woman in picture, is Angela Merkel, German politician best known as the first female chancellor of Germany and one of the architects of the European Union.

Angela
Dorothea Kasner, better known as Angela Merkel, was born in Hamburg, West
Germany, in 1954. Trained as a
physicist, Merkel entered politics after the 1989 fall of the Berlin Wall. Merkel
became Germany's first female chancellor, and one of the leading figures of the
European Union, following the 2005 national elections.

As
we would remember the German Chancellor visited India recently and her visit saw
the formation of the India-Germany Climate and Renewable Energy Alliance to
promote renewable energy. Merkel promised €1 billion for India’s Green Energy
Corridor and another €1 billion for solar projects. The two countries signed 18
memoranda of understanding on higher education, civil aviation, railways and
food safety, among other areas. India agreed to set up a fast-track approval
mechanism for German companies.

More
news about her is forthcoming as at Brussels,
European leaders lashed out at each other’s handling of the continent’s
greatest immigration crisis since the Second World War, even as they came
together to seek ways to ease the plight of the tens of thousands marching
across the Balkans toward the European Union’s heartland. At a hastily called
emergency summit here, 11 European Union and Balkan leaders were especially
looking to shore up Greece’s porous border with Turkey and slow the flow of
people heading north toward the EU’s heartland.

“Extraordinary
times demand extraordinary measures,” German Chancellor Angela Merkel said. Nearly
250,000 migrants have passed through the Balkans since mid-September and the
surge is not being deterred by either cold weather or colder waters off Greece.
Croatia said 11,500 people crossed into the country Saturday, the highest in a
single day since Hungary put up a fence and refugees started coming into
Croatia in mid-September. Slovenian Prime Minister Miro Cerar said his tiny
Alpine nation was being overwhelmed by the refugees — with 60,000 arriving in
the last 10 days — and was not receiving enough help from its EU partners. He
put the challenge in simple terms: if no fresh approach is forthcoming “in the
next few days and weeks, I do believe that the European Union and Europe as a
whole will start to fall apart.” Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic asked
a fundamental question that the 28-nation bloc and non-EU nations like Serbia
have been unable to answer since the migratory trek across the Mediterranean
and through Turkey started last spring: “What we are going to do with hundreds
of thousands of these people?”

Half
a year later, there is no answer. Sunday’s meeting was hoping to come up with
some Band-Aid solutions at best. Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras commented
that having a summit on the migrant crisis was of little use if Turkey was not
invited. Migration experts, however, say the flood of refugees won’t be halted
until the world resolves the war in Syria, which is driving millions out of the
country.

Getting
back to those birds – they are lories. Lories
and lorikeets (tribe Loriini) are small to medium-sized arboreal parrots
characterized by their specialized brush-tipped tongues for feeding on nectar
of various blossoms and soft fruits. They
are widely distributed throughout the Australasian region, including
south-eastern Asia, Polynesia,Papua New Guinea, Timor Leste and Australia, and
the majority have very brightly coloured plumage.

I
remember seeing him score runs at Marina, turning out for Mafatlal –
Parthasarathi Sharma, a right hander made many runs in domestic and made his
debut at Delhi [Gordon Greenidge and Viv Richards were playing their second
Test] – scored 54 & 49; in the 3rd test he scored 6 & 9 – and was
dropped … on the tour of New Zealand and West Indies, an year later, he was
pitch-forked as an Opener and slowly withered away.

At
Lancaster Park, Christchurch in Feb 1976 [ODI 35] – Sharma, Vengsarkar, Kirmani
and Jock Edwards made their debut.
Batting first Indians made 154; Gundappa Viswanath top scoring with
56. Collinge took 5 wickets. NZ chased
it rather easily losing a solitary wicket – it was 8 balls per over those days.

Wonder
why reading this now ~ the die-hard Indian fan has been following the fortunes
of Indian Cricket team and losses are nothing new – though a performance like
today badly hurts.

Indian businesses
in Newcastle, Isipingo, oThongathi (Tongaat), KwaDukuza (Stanger),
Pietermaritzburg and elsewhere are in the crosshairs of a new radical group
that has accused them of a host of “violations”, including physical and sexual
abuse of workers – reports www.iol.co.za/ - While the iNjeje yamaNguni was set
up in May, its head is no stranger to controversy. Phumlani Mfeka’s anti-Indian
sentiments, particularly an explosive SMS he sent out on Friday, prompted the
KwaZulu-Natal government to seek and obtain an urgent court interdict against
him at the weekend, to prevent bloodshed. But the 26-year-old former member of
the Mazibuye African Forum, who claims to have a following of like-minded
Africans, has vowed to not rest until errant Indian business owners are held to
account for their actions. Mfeka said the “struggle” was not targeted at the
Indian working class, but rather Indian businessmen.

Back home, India
suffered one of its worst defeats in One dayers. Way back in Oct 2000 – Sri Lanka scored 299
and bowled out India for 54 – the loss margin was 245 runs. At Sydney in Feb 2004, Australia made 359 in VB Series finals – India lost that match
by 208 runs

Today’s
margin of 214 will rank in between those
two and is the biggest win for South Africa in an ODI against India (in terms
of runs). It's their sixth-largest win in all ODIs, and India's second-largest
defeat ever.

~ ~ the list at the
start is : bowlers who have conceded more than 100 runs in One day
Cricket. Bhuvaneshwar Kumar conceded
106, the 2nd highest in ODI after Mick Lewis’s 113. Mohit Sharma’s economy rate of 12 per over 84
in 7) is the worst by any Indian bowler [with a minium of 7 overs !] … Among
the 7 bowlers, Raina had economy rate of 6.33
~ he bowled 3 overs for 19 with wicket of Quinton de Kock.

This match has once
again exposed Indian vulnerability
- tomorrow all fans would ask why
Bhuvi and Mohit are still playing ….. then after sometime, another opponent –
everything will be forgotten and we will again stand in the Queue to buy
tickets [at high price] for another match – perhaps the same players will play
again !!

Saturday, October 24, 2015

Australians play
the game hard way – they call it so – and that they think grants liberty to
slang and sledge.

Manoj Tiwary has
had more downs than ups – he has so far played 12 ODIs for India. After a highly successful season, he
was sure to make his debut against Bangladesh – but on the eve of the match, he
injured his shoulder………..then he flew down to Brisbane and played in ODI 2670
in Feb 2008 – looked all at sea – Brett Lee bowled him for 2. That match produced no result. He had to wait for 3 long years for his
next match – was pushed to open – then in Dec 2011 at Chepauk against West
Indies played a good innings scoring his maiden century and winning the Man of
the Match.

This year, he
played 3 matches against Zimbabwe, did not score much – has a total of 287
including that unbeaten 104. At Chepauk,
Tiwary had walked out to face the fourth delivery of the match, with Roach on a
hat-trick after a lack of bounce did for Rahane and Patel. Kieron
Pollard smashed ten sixes, and
farmed the strike adeptly after Russell departed, and was last man out trying for an eleventh.

In IPL 2014 - in a match between Mumbai Indians and Royal
Challengers, Starc bowled a bouncer at
Pollard, who was beaten as he attempted a hook. Starc went up to the batsman
and spoke a few words; Pollard's reaction waved him off. As Starc ran in to
bowl the next ball, Pollard pulled out of the delivery by backing away outside
leg stump just as the bowler was approaching his jump. Starc did not abort the
delivery, instead - followed the batsman and bowled the ball in
anger close to Pollard's legs. Pollard responded by swinging his bat hard -
appearing to threaten to throw it at the bowler - and it slipped out of his
hand and fell on the leg side. Both players were visibly angry and continued to
exchange words.

Today there is news
that - Gautam Gambhir and Manoj Tiwary, captains of the Delhi and Bengal teams,
were involved in a prolonged heated exchange during the third day's play of the
Ranji Trophy match at Feroz Shah Kotla in Delhi. The umpire, K Srinath, had to
intervene, and the match referee, Valmik Buch, has called for a hearing. In a
statement issued after the hearing, Gambhir said Buch conceded he had seen
video evidence of Tiwary pushing Delhi seamer Pradeep Sangwan.

The incident
happened in the seventh over of Bengal's second innings, when Tiwary came out
to bat at the fall of the second wicket, that of Parthasarathi Bhattacharjee to
the left-arm spin of Manan Sharma. Delhi had fallen behind by 108 runs in the
first innings, and were looking to bowl Bengal out a second time around for a
shot at an outright win. Tiwary came out
wearing a cap, but even before he faced a delivery - probably realising a pace
bowler was bowling from the other end - he called for a helmet. Delhi probably
saw this as an act of wasting time by Bengal to hold on to their three
first-innings lead points. There were words exchanged, which soon gave way to
aggressive gestures between Gambhir, fielding at first slip, and Tiwary.

Srinath had to
separate the two. Buch called in the two team managers, Manoj Kapoor of Delhi
and Sameer Dasgupta of Bengal, and the two captains. Some reports suggest that
in an ugly gesture, Gambhir even pushed umpire Srinath, who was trying to get
him out of the way to hit Tiwary. Touching umpire is a grave offence, which
could invite a ban.

Gambhir has been
involved in some ugly spars ~ and it is time, a player of his experience
conducts himself on field. Ugly spats
are not restricted to ‘street cricket’ …… Ambati Rayudu while playing for
Hyderabad years ago, was attacked by Arjun Yadav, son of famed Shivlal
Yadav. Worser still was the left arm
pacer from Baroda Rashid Patel chasing Raman Lamba with a stick in hand. It was Jan 1991, Duleep Trophy final between
West Zone and North zone. Lamba made 180
and NZ piled up 729/9 when declaration came.
In the 2nd innings Lamba was taunting them again…… Kiran More was
the Captain who reportedly shouted something to Rashid Patel, who kept bouncing
to Lamba. Reportedly Patel overstepped far too long and
hurled one short with a big ‘no-ball’, injuring Lamba. The incident was widely reported in all
newspapers. There were exchange of
words, incensed Lamba reportedly waved his bat – Rashid Patel plucked the
stump, chased him around the ground and probably hit him too. Following an enquiry Lamba was debarred for
10 months and Rashid Patel – 13 months.

In 1992, there was
an International event – at Perth when the mighty Dennis Lillee and dogged
Javed Mianded were involved in an altercation.
Lillee was not having a great day and Miandad reportedly teased him with
some snide remarks… when Miandad played down to fineleg and set off for a
single, Lillee deliberately crossed his path and collided. Miandad’s bat hit
Lillee’s back, Lillee kicked him on his knee - resembling a boxer ~ Miandad
advanced with bat held high in a threatening gesture …. Aussie Capt Greg
Chappel entirely blamed Miandad, though Lillee got a warning a $ 200 fine…

Recently in 2013
occurred an off-field brawl at around 2
am in a bar in Birmingham city Aussies were celebrating their win over England
at Edgbaston; a small contingent of English players had also come to be
bar. David Warner reportedly threw a
punch at England player Joe Root in an altercation and promptly received a
ban…. In Aug 2013, a picture tweeted by
England's wicket keeper Matt Prior showed the squad celebrated, sat on the Oval after dark surrounded by beer
and champagne.

And Malcolm Conn
wrote in the Herald Sun: 'While the centre of the ground was quite dark, lights
were on in the grandstands with dozens of people still cleaning up after a late
finish which saw the game go beyond 7.30pm. 'A number of players including Stuart Broad,
Kevin Pietersen and Jimmy Anderson took it in turns urinating on the pitch to
the cheers of their team mates.

Friday, October 23, 2015

Perjury is the intentional act of swearing a false oath or of
falsifying an affirmation to tell the truth, whether spoken or in writing,
concerning matters material to an official proceeding. For example, it is not
perjury to lie about one's age except where age is a fact material to
influencing the legal result, such as eligibility for old age retirement
benefits or whether a person was of an age to have legal capacity. Perjury is
considered a serious offense in many jurisdictions.

A half-naked
hooker, bundles of cash, diamond deals gone wrong, drugs, cheating, lying,
alcohol and scalps – it sounds like the latest Bond movie Spectre, in fact it's
the Chris Cairns perjury trial. Showing for free in London's Southwark Crown
Court, the opening three weeks in the cricketer's trial have had as many tweaks
and turns as a Shane Warne over, with flippers, zooters, googlies and a few
wrong'uns being bowled by the lawyers. In
its efforts to prove Cairns lied under oath in his 2012 libel trial when he
said he'd "never" cheated at cricket, the evidence has criss-crossed
the globe – to India, England, New Zealand, South Africa and Bangladesh.

Years back, in the
now defunct ICL, the public reason given for his suspension was under
performance due to an ankle injury which put him in breach of his contract. But
in the weeks and months that followed, Cairns and others were rumoured to be
involved in match-fixing. Then in January 2010, Lalit Modi, chairman of the
Indian Premier League, posted a message on Twitter commenting on Chris Cairns who
in turn initiated libel action against
Modi in the High Court in the United Kingdom. Chris Cairns was successful and
was awarded £90,000 in damages after allegations on Twitter. The case
demonstrated that posts on Twitter are taken as seriously, in the eyes of the
law, as comments printed in mainstream – though that tweet was in fact read by
a small number of people only.

Now after passage
of some years, Cairns is facing charges of perjury. Remember seeing Dinesh Mongia turning out in a local
tournament and smashing all bowlers over the park, scoring a big hundred. A real utility cricketer, Mongia scored
heavily in domestic and scored a 300+ too.
In 2004 he signed for Lancashire as an overseas player when Stuart Law
was injured. In 2005 he was signed by Leicestershireon a full-time contract. He
would well be remembered as one who kept VVS Laxman out of 2003 WC. He scored 1230 runs and took 14 wickets with
his left arm spin and was a good fielder too.
He made a century against Zimbabwe and got MoM. Like many other players of yesteryears, he
faded in to oblivion, runs a cricket coaching school, dabbled in acting and played
a parody of Amitabh Bachchan in the movie Kabab Mein Haddi – now suddenly he is
back in news as Lou Vincent named him while giving evidence at the Southwark
Crown Court in London in the Chris Cairns perjury case. The
Chandigarh Lions player however has denied any involvement in match-fixing.

Today’s
NZ Herald reports that Daniel Vettori
was "shocked and then angry" when his teammate Brendon McCullum told
him that Chris Cairns had approached him twice to fix cricket matches. Vettori
told Southwark Crown Court in London via video-link that both men were close
friends and that Cairns had been his mentor since his debut in 1997. Vettori told the court that McCullum
approached him and Kyle Mills while they were travelling on the New Zealand
team bus while on tour in Bangladesh. Vettori could not recall all the details
of the conversation but remembered that McCullum alleged Cairns said "all
the big boys were doing it".

Asked
why he did not report to the International Cricket Council what McCullum had
said, Vettori said he did not think he was obligated to because the alleged
approach was to someone else. "I'm probably wrong in thinking this, but I
didn't think so at the time," he said. McCullum did not report the alleged
approaches from Cairns until John Rhodes, an anti-corruption officer from the
ICC, told the New Zealand team in February 2011 that players could be banned
for failing to report match-fixing approaches without undue delay.

Vettori
introduced McCullum to Mr Rhodes and also told the investigator about a
promotional tour following the Champions Trophy tournament in 2006. He and
Cairns were paid US$15,000 each to promote an Indian toothpaste company. Vettori
gave the money to Cairns to purchase a diamond engagement ring of equivalent
value. Vettori never received the ring and said Cairns later repaid the
equivalent sum in cash, £9000, in £20 notes. He said it was "innocuous"
but felt it was wise to tell Mr Rhodes.

Under
cross-examination by Orlando Pownall QC, Vettori conceded he made a mistake in
the date that McCullum told him about the alleged approaches by Cairns. He was
unsure whether it was 2008 or 2010. Mr Pownall suggested it was 2008 but
Vettori told Mr Rhodes it was 2010 so he could not be accused of an "undue
delay" in reporting the approach. Players can be banned for between one
and five years, but Vettori disagreed that he was concerned about that. "I
made a mistake but it never crossed my mind that I might be sanctioned. I felt
people would understand," he said.

Under
questioning from Mr Pownall, Vettori said McCullum never mentioned the names of
Lou Vincent and Daryl Tuffey - a former New Zealand bowler who played with both
Vincent and Cairns in the Indian Cricket League - in connection to Cairns'
alleged matchfixing. However, he revealed the New Zealand management heard
rumours about the trio match fixing in the Indian Cricket League and discussed
whether Tuffey should be selected. But he confirmed he never confronted Tuffey
about the rumours.

From ancient times, civilizations have developed and
thrived nearer major rivers.

River
Krishna, is the fourth longest river
which flows entirely in India, after the Ganges, Godavari and Narmada. One for
sure would not miss the long bridge on this river nearer Bejawada [Vijayawada
station]. On 2nd June 2014
was born a new State – Telengana, making the no. to 29. Though a new entrant, it is 12th
largest in terms of size and initially shared the capital at Hyderabad with
Andhra Pradesh. Now Andhra Pradesh is
to have a brand new State Capital – literally built brick by bricks – it is
‘Amaravati’. While many would have clamoured for an existing city, Mr
Chandrababu Naidu has other ideas.

Indian Express
reports that Amaravati is one of the few places in the country where a river
flows north instead of south or east. This is considered auspicious and well
over 2,000 years ago, the Satavahanas chose the site to build their capital at
Dharanikota, two kilometres away from Amaravati town. It’s located close to two
well developed cities: it is 32 kilometres away from Guntur and 39 kilometres
away from Vijayawada. When the Andhra Pradesh government decided to name the
proposed new capital city ‘Amaravati’ it was not just to resurrect the name of
an ancient political, cultural and Buddhist capital that was ahead of its time
even then, but also with the hope that the new capital would acquire the name,
fame, glory and grandeur associated with it — retaining its historical
significance yet reflecting modernity.

News
reports suggest that around five lakh people attended the function at
Uddandarayunipalem village on the banks of river Krishna. After performing the
'shila nyas' for the capital city — about 40 kms from Vijayawada, the
commercial capital of Andhra Pradesh, Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed
the gathering. Union minister M Venkaiah
Naidu providied a Telugu translation. Among
the dignitaries in attendance were Andhra Pradesh Governor ESL Narasimhan,
Tamil Nadu Governor K Rosaiah, Assam and Nagaland Governor Padmanabha Acharya,
Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao —Central ministers Ms Nirmala
Sitaraman, YS Chowdary and Bandaru Dattatreya. Ministers and delegations from
Singapore and Japan also attended the event.

The new Amaravati
will rise on the banks of the Krishna river between Vijayawada and Guntur.
Given that the new capital requires large tracts of land for development, the
AP government took a major decision to procure 33,000 acres for the capital
through land pooling instead of land acquisition. So far, 30,000 acres have
been procured. The capital region comprising 30 villages between Vijayawada and
Guntur was chosen because it is centrally located and easily accessible from
north and south, coastal districts and the Rayalaseema region. The region was
chosen because of its scenic beauty with blue hills overlooking the river
Krishna.

Chief minister
Naidu has promised that it will be a world-class and 'people's capital'. The
city will be spread over 54,000 acres and in 10 years will have the state
secretariat, high court and legislative assembly, among other things. Singapore
government agencies have prepared the master plans for the three-layered
capital -- seed capital, capital city and capital region. While the Centre
would provide funds for construction of legislature buildings as per the Andhra
Pradesh Re-organisation Act, the state government has plans to set up hubs of
sports, entertainment and in other fields to promote economic activity, an
official release said earlier. According to IANS,
Telugu Association of North America (TANA), the oldest and the largest
association of Telugu people outside the Telugu states, is also raising funds
for the development of the city through a 'My Brick - My Amaravati' campaign.
It will accept donations from all non-resident Telugus who are interested in
contributing. It is stated that interested public can sponsor 'bricks' with
each brick at Rs. 10/-

From now on web
searches for Amaravati will lead to the new State Capital of AP – earlier it
referred to the village in the Guntur district, located on the banks of Krishna River. Though now it is a village administration, it
was an important historic town that served as the capital of the Satavahana
kingdom in ancient days. Sri
Amaralingeswara Swamy temple is located here and it is also a historic Buddhist
site, with a stupa dating back to 2nd century BCE. The Sātavāhana Empire was based
in Dharanikota and Amaravati as well as
Junnar (Pune) and Prathisthan (Paithan) in Maharashtra. The Satavahanas are credited for establishing
peace in the country, resisting the onslaught of foreigners after the decline
of the Mauryan Empire. They are known
for their patronage of Hinduism. The Sātavāhanas were early issuers of Indian
state coinage struck with images of their rulers.

Other
than the new State Capital, Andhra deserves appreciation for the steps taken in
interlinking rivers. Taking the first
step to interlink the mighty Godavari and Krishna rivers, water from the
Godavari was released into a newly built canal, flowing eventually to meet the river Krishna at
Prakasam Barrage at Vijayawada after flowing for 174 kms. After flowing for 124
kms, the Godavari water reached the Krishna delta region where it was welcomed
by thousands of farmers and villagers who offered flowers and prayers.